Two half brothers have pleaded innocent in Crawford County Circuit Court to capital murder charges in the shooting death last month of an Alma man.
Court records show the Crawford County public defender's office representing Nicholas Barrows, 19, and Jonathan Bridgewater, 27, waived formal arraignment before Circuit Judge Gary Cottrell and entered innocent pleas on the charges.
Cottrell doubled the bail on the men to $500,000 each, according to the court records.
Barrows and Bridgewater also were charged with committing a felony with a firearm that would allow a judge to add up to 15 years to a sentence.
In addition, Barrows was charged with criminal use of a prohibited weapon for being in possession of three pipe bombs investigators found in his bedroom as they executed a search warrant in connection with the murder investigation.
The two are accused in the June 24 death of Jamison Lee Plum, 19, whose decomposing body was found buried in a shallow grave June 30 on property near Rudy where the two men lived.
A girlfriend of Bridgewater called the sheriff's office June 30 to report the slaying. She said Bridgewater had taken her into the woods on the property a week earlier and showed her Plum's body that was lying on the ground under a tarp before he was buried.
She told investigators she had heard gunshots and screams hours before being shown the body and Barrows emerging from the woods minutes later with a shotgun. She reported Barrows shot Plum because he believed Plum had raped his girlfriend.
NW News on 07/25/2014